Why hire an old lady when you can get a dude?

[ABED]

I've heard latino Goku and it's just not a good fit. His performance sounds like those dubs you hear when you switch language tracks on a DVD - not convincing or fitting.

I can see where you're coming from but i was talking in terms of macho spirit and manliness.

Sean's Goku sounds like a Macho deep voiced manly hero who ALSO is goofy. When it's mostly other way round. In US Fandom whenever people talk about DBZ Goku , "manliness" is what comes to their mind unlike the Japanese fans or Manga fans where "Pure Hearted" Comes to our mind unlike Western fans who think screaming is all Goku is about.

And his latino voice sounds very manly.

We aren't talking about the perception of the fans. That's an entirely different issue. Schemmel's performance is goofy when Goku is goofy, etc. Whatever the fans' perceptions are is mostly due to how the series was presented and marketed.

[JohnnyCashKami]

TFS is not a legitimate example because it's not DB, it's a parody, not to mention it's just not well acted.

Riiight. That's why TFS is hired to do professional dubs 'cause, you know, companies just hire anyone to do paid dubs.

I've heard latino Goku and it's just not a good fit. His performance sounds like those dubs you hear when you switch language tracks on a DVD - not convincing or fitting. Where is this rasp you're hearing?

The Mexican dub (also known as Latin Spanish dub) is one of the best Dragon Ball Z dubs in the world and their Goku VA did a flawless job, even to the point that I wish they'd include this dub on the Dragon Ball games.

Kinda irks me when they call Chichi as "Milk" and Piccolo as "Pikkoro" (technically correct as it's how it's said in Japanese but come on), they tried so hard to be as faithful as possible yet did a AB Groupe thing (make up a name that has nothing to do with the series).

[ABED]

Riiight. That's why TFS is hired to do professional dubs 'cause, you know, companies just hire anyone to do paid dubs.

In my best Chris Traeger impression, FUNimation literally did just that with the in-house dub.

That Mexican dub is enjoyable and accurate, but Goku's voice doesn't fit at all.

[Majin Buu]

Though the op is clearly a troll, I've been wondering for a while now if there's a sexist element to this criticism. Kinda like these people are saying "A woman shouldn't be the voice a fighting man. Women can't voice fighting men".

To say nothing of the implicit assumption that strong men can't and shouldn't have soft or high pitches voices (which as Kunzait mentioned, men like Mike Tyson disprove), displaying a very narrow idea of masculinity.

[Bajosexto]

Riiight. That's why TFS is hired to do professional dubs 'cause, you know, companies just hire anyone to do paid dubs.

In my best Chris Traeger impression, FUNimation literally did just that with the in-house dub.

That Mexican dub is enjoyable and accurate, but Goku's voice doesn't fit at all.

Why doesn't Mario Castañeda's voice fit Goku?

[ABED]

Riiight. That's why TFS is hired to do professional dubs 'cause, you know, companies just hire anyone to do paid dubs.

In my best Chris Traeger impression, FUNimation literally did just that with the in-house dub.

That Mexican dub is enjoyable and accurate, but Goku's voice doesn't fit at all.

Why doesn't Mario Castañeda's voice fit Goku?

Hard to explain, but it just doesn't fit, nor do I think he conveys Goku's personality well at all. And his voice doesn't mesh well with the design.

[8000 Saiyan]

Stop bringing in TFS to the conversation - it's a parody show. There's no acting required. Even if it did, MasakoX does not capture Goku's spirit. He's not required to because he's not voicing Goku. It's a parody Goku. Do you think Power Rangers has good acting? Because that's about the level of acting in TFS.

Goku's had several good voice actors, but Nozawa is the best by far. Schemmel is the next closest and I appreciate that he doesn't try to imitate another performance. Corlette is after him, but he's a little flat. I haven't heard enough of Morrow, but after hearing him several times over the years, I can't remember anything about his performance. It's that bland. Bringing up the rear, is Kelamis. His voice is high pitched and his scream is vaguely like Nozawa's but that doesn't make his performance anywhere close to hers. I'm sure everyone knows how I feel about his take. I just don't like it at all.

Goku doesn't have to be voiced by a man, but any other actor subsequent to Nozawa doesn't have to sound like her either. In fact, I wish they wouldn't.

I'm sure that they would try their best to get someone who sounds a lot like Nozawa when she retires or passes away.

I can see where you're coming from but i was talking in terms of macho spirit and manliness.

Sean's Goku sounds like a Macho deep voiced manly hero who ALSO is goofy. When it's mostly other way round. In US Fandom whenever people talk about DBZ Goku , "manliness" is what comes to their mind unlike the Japanese fans or Manga fans where "Pure Hearted" Comes to our mind unlike Western fans who think screaming is all Goku is about.

Regardless of my problems with Schemmel in the old dub, I never thought he sounded like a "macho deep voiced manly hero". When I think of someone who sounds like that, I think of David Gasman, the Big Green Goku.

When he gets goofy, he doesn't sound deep, like at all. I really don't hear what you hear.

[ABED]

I don't like that idea. I'd prefer someone have their own performance in keeping with the character, much like Fortuneteller Baba's two voice actors. They are very different but both fit.

[WittyUsername]

Though the op is clearly a troll, I've been wondering for a while now if there's a sexist element to this criticism. Kinda like these people are saying "A woman shouldn't be the voice a fighting man. Women can't voice fighting men".

To say nothing of the implicit assumption that strong men can't and shouldn't have soft or high pitches voices (which as Kunzait mentioned, men like Mike Tyson disprove), displaying a very narrow idea of masculinity.

I can’t speak for others, but I personally have never been particularly fond of the practice of getting women to voice male characters, not for some silly notion of masculinity, but because it often strikes me as somewhat phony and lazy. Don’t get me wrong, I think Masako Nozawa is great as Goku, but generally speaking, I prefer for male characters to actually be voiced by male actors, and I’d be lying if I said that Nozawa’s Goku wasn’t something that took some getting used to.

[MasenkoHA]

I can’t speak for others, but I personally have never been particularly fond of the practice of getting women to voice male characters, not for some silly notion of masculinity, but because it often strikes me as somewhat phony and lazy. Don’t get me wrong, I think Masako Nozawa is great as Goku, but generally speaking, I prefer for male characters to actually be voiced by male actors, and I’d be lying if I said that Nozawa’s Goku wasn’t something that took some getting used to.

Goku started out as a child. A very young looking child. Female voice actors are almost always more convincing voicing young boys than adult males who 9 times out of 10 sound artifical and fake.

Should they have recast Goku with an appropriate male actor aftet puberty to be more authentic? Eh maybe but Nozawa did such a good job who cares?

[WittyUsername]

I can’t speak for others, but I personally have never been particularly fond of the practice of getting women to voice male characters, not for some silly notion of masculinity, but because it often strikes me as somewhat phony and lazy. Don’t get me wrong, I think Masako Nozawa is great as Goku, but generally speaking, I prefer for male characters to actually be voiced by male actors, and I’d be lying if I said that Nozawa’s Goku wasn’t something that took some getting used to.

Goku started out as a child. A very young looking child. Female voice actors are almost always more convincing voicing young boys than adult males who 9 times out of 10 sound artifical and fake.

Should they have recast Goku with an appropriate male actor aftet puberty to be more authentic? Eh maybe but Nozawa did such a good job who cares?

When I said that casting female actors for male characters comes across as lazy, I was referring to the fact that it’s pretty much only done because it’s an easy alternative compared to hiring actual kids to do the voices. As a whole, with the exception of something like The Simpsons, the practice of getting women to voice young boys seems to be more common in anime than it is in western animation. I get why it’s done, especially for long running shows, but it doesn’t strike me as anymore “real” sounding. I can still pretty easily tell when a character is voiced by a woman. I certainly never sounded like Bart Simpson when I was a kid.

[MasenkoHA]

More authentic and real sounding than casting an adult male to do a young boy voice? Yes

As authentic and real as casting an actual young boy? Of course not. But as far as I understand it the production schedule of a weekly broadcast anime doesn’t allow time for child voice actors in series regular roles.

So when the option is an adult male with a deep voice trying to raise his pitch or an adult female slightly lowering her pitch the latter usually works better

[Mister_Popo]

Goku as a character is not Kenshiro. He is very brave and daring, but not the archetype of the "manly" shounen fighting machine. His character has a child-like, playful side as well.
I think Masako Nozawa does a brilliant job in depicting those two 'sides'.

[WittyUsername]

More authentic and real sounding than casting an adult male to do a young boy voice? Yes

It really depends. There are some men who have more high pitched and childlike voices than others.

As for anime schedules not having time for child actors, I can sort of understand that, but considering that Ed from Cowboy Bebop was voiced by a 16 year old, it doesn’t seem like it’s impossible to hire child seiyuus.

Again though, I’m fine with Nozawa voicing Goku. In fact, I can’t imagine anyone other than her as the Japanese voice for Goku. She’s extremely iconic in the role, and she does a great job of capturing the spirit of the character. As far as English dubs are concerned however, I think it’s for the best that Goku be voiced by a man. I remember having previously seen people suggest that someone like Colleen Clinkenbeard would make for a better Adult Goku than Sean Schemmel, but I don’t think I’d be able to get behind that.

[ABED]

More authentic and real sounding than casting an adult male to do a young boy voice? Yes

It really depends. There are some men who have more high pitched and childlike voices than others.

As for anime schedules not having time for child actors, I can sort of understand that, but considering that Ed from Cowboy Bebop was voiced by a 16 year old, it doesn’t seem like it’s impossible to hire child seiyuus.

Again though, I’m fine with Nozawa voicing Goku. In fact, I can’t imagine anyone other than her as the Japanese voice for Goku. She’s extremely iconic in the role, and she does a great job of capturing the spirit of the character. As far as English dubs are concerned however, I think it’s for the best that Goku be voiced by a man. I remember having previously seen people suggest that someone like Colleen Clinkenbeard would make for a better Adult Goku than Sean Schemmel, but I don’t think I’d be able to get behind that.

How long is Cowboy Bebop compared to DB? The initial run of ReBoot lasted 3 seasons and went through I think four Enzos.

[8000 Saiyan]

More authentic and real sounding than casting an adult male to do a young boy voice? Yes

It really depends. There are some men who have more high pitched and childlike voices than others.

As for anime schedules not having time for child actors, I can sort of understand that, but considering that Ed from Cowboy Bebop was voiced by a 16 year old, it doesn’t seem like it’s impossible to hire child seiyuus.

Again though, I’m fine with Nozawa voicing Goku. In fact, I can’t imagine anyone other than her as the Japanese voice for Goku. She’s extremely iconic in the role, and she does a great job of capturing the spirit of the character. As far as English dubs are concerned however, I think it’s for the best that Goku be voiced by a man. I remember having previously seen people suggest that someone like Colleen Clinkenbeard would make for a better Adult Goku than Sean Schemmel, but I don’t think I’d be able to get behind that.

How long is Cowboy Bebop compared to DB? The initial run of ReBoot lasted 3 seasons and went through I think four Enzos.

It's 26 episodes long.

[WittyUsername]

More authentic and real sounding than casting an adult male to do a young boy voice? Yes

It really depends. There are some men who have more high pitched and childlike voices than others.

As for anime schedules not having time for child actors, I can sort of understand that, but considering that Ed from Cowboy Bebop was voiced by a 16 year old, it doesn’t seem like it’s impossible to hire child seiyuus.

Again though, I’m fine with Nozawa voicing Goku. In fact, I can’t imagine anyone other than her as the Japanese voice for Goku. She’s extremely iconic in the role, and she does a great job of capturing the spirit of the character. As far as English dubs are concerned however, I think it’s for the best that Goku be voiced by a man. I remember having previously seen people suggest that someone like Colleen Clinkenbeard would make for a better Adult Goku than Sean Schemmel, but I don’t think I’d be able to get behind that.

How long is Cowboy Bebop compared to DB? The initial run of ReBoot lasted 3 seasons and went through I think four Enzos.

The initial run went through three voice actors for Enzo as a kid. There was a fourth actor in season 4, but that was because the season came out three years after the previous one.

Anyway, in all fairness, Dragon Ball does have a fair amount of time skips, and Goku was a preteen at the beginning of the series, so his voice changing over time would’ve at least made sense if they did decide to get a kid to voice him.

[ABED]

Point being that little children's voices change quick. If a kid voiced Gohan, we would've had at least 15 by now. You're not taking into account all the different video games over the years.

[WittyUsername]

Point being that little children's voices change quick. If a kid voiced Gohan, we would've had at least 15 by now. You're not taking into account all the different video games over the years.

The video games aren't important to me.

[ABED]

Point being that little children's voices change quick. If a kid voiced Gohan, we would've had at least 15 by now. You're not taking into account all the different video games over the years.

The video games aren't important to me.

Even if we limit it to the anime. Gohan was a kid for several years, then there's Kai. We would've burned through 4 or 5 Gohans.